Would You Buy a Game Remake?

I am writing this on the same day 2K released BioShock: The Collection, which is a remastering of the BioShock games. Also, on episode 59 of The College Gamers Podcast my co-host and I had a great conversation about the announcement of an Arkham Batman remake that looked amazing. Skyrim is getting a remake that I am pumped for. It seems that the video game market is flooded with remakes of older games. Not to mention Nintendo bringing their older titles to new devices.

It is obvious that remakes are aimed towards the more hardcore fans of a game. Being honest with myself, I am 100 percent going to buy the Skyrim remake at full price. It does not make sense, there is no new gameplay or story, I already have over 300 hours logged on steam but that is because I LOVE that world and lore. At full price, the average gamer would most likely not buy a game they already have just because of a graphical upgrade.

Remakes are not a bad thing. I would make an argument that remakes are good for the video game industry. It gives fans of a series something to do between releases of new games. Remakes also make extra revenue that can fund projects while not hurting productivity because remakes can be contracted out to other studios.

The original Arkham Batman games are not on the current generation consoles. So making a remake that takes advantage of modern day console power makes since but should not be sold at full price. Because a remake gives no new content but does take time and work to remake the game, it shouldn’t be sold too cheap. Finding a balance will be important for game developers who want to sell remakes. As long as remakes are bought, remakes will be sold.